2022 Vincent Doucet Sancerre 750 ml

“Just got to town. Short trip—got something you gotta taste."

Our friend Jeff’s text got straight to the point. And for Jeff, you clear your schedule.

A few hours later, we were sitting at Bouchon’s bar with a seafood tower and salmon rillettes in front of us—Jeff knows how to order. For a few moments, our attention was stolen by Thomas Keller himself, who was sitting just a few feet away. That’s when the somm showed up with a bottle of the $335 2021 Pascal Cotat Les Monts Damnés Sancerre. Like we said, Jeff really knows how to order.

Then, he pulled a bottle of Sancerre out of his bag. “These guys are maybe a ten minute drive away from each other,” he said, gesturing to the new wine and the Cotat. “Fourth generation winemakers, everything you want in Sancerre—I found them on my trip last month, and I don’t know how they’re still under the radar.”

We tasted, and were instant believers—even alongside its regal company, the 2022 Vincent Doucet clearly had the goods. 

The village of Sury-en-Vaux, in Sancerre’s northwest, is quietly turning into one of the great homes for under-the-radar Sancerre stars. Domaine Pastou is based there, and so too is vigneron Vincent Doucet, who calls the hamlet of Plessis within Sury-en-Vaux his home.

At Doucet’s winery, things are kept classic and simple—the wines are pressed with a modern bladder press, carefully settled, then fermented and aged in stainless steel, with a racking after three months to help with fruit purity. After all, when you have great vineyards, you don’t need to do much else.